For top bicycle injury lawyers in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston, or a Texas injury accident attorney to represent you in another part of the state, contact Jim S. Adler & Associates.

The popularity of bicycling has increased dramatically over the past three decades. Bicycles are now used by more and more people as their main mode of transportation. Congested roadways, the high cost of commuting and parking restrictions make bicycling a convenient and inexpensive alternative.

Many cities have constructed special bike lanes and many parks have now made trails accessible to bicycles. Even some vehicle manufacturers are now offering bike racks as standard equipment. However, many automobile drivers do not respect the bicyclists' rights to share the roads and, more importantly, young bike riders haven't been educated on how to legally and safely share the roads with automobiles, resulting in a rise in serious, and sometimes fatal, injuries to bicyclists.

In the United States, a bicyclist is fatally injured every 6 hours and nearly one million children are injured every year in bicycle related accidents. While collisions with automobiles only account for 1/3 of the accidents, they account for the majority of the catastrophic injuries, 75% of which are head injuries.

Motor vehicle operators and bicyclists must obey the same traffic laws and there are many "new" traffic laws concerning bicycles. Ignorance of the laws does not alleviate a motor vehicle operator's fault in an accident if they injure a bicyclist.

Sadly, however, many automobile drivers do not respect the bicyclists' rights to share the roads and, more importantly, young bike riders haven't been educated on how to legally and safely share the roads with automobiles.

Motor vehicle operators must be attentive to bicycle riders. They must equate a bicycle with a motor vehicle and observe the same laws. For example: if you are sharing the right lane with a bicyclist and you are planning to turn right at an intersection, you must yield to the bicyclist. You may not drive in a designated bike lane unless you have immediate intentions to turn off the road. There are many "new" traffic laws concerning bicycles and ignorance of the laws will not protect you against negligence if you injure a bicyclist.

Bicycle riders are subject to the same traffic laws as motorists. If you are riding a bicycle, you are also required to obey the traffic laws, and you deserve the same protection by those laws as automobile drivers.

Various types of negligence, such as product liability, defective products and negligent manufacturing or assembly, can cause bicycle accidents and injuries.

Many bicycle accidents result from roadway defects. This often is the result of a dangerous condition of public property. If the roadway was a cause of your injury, you may be able to recover damages for your injuries whether or not another driver was involved.

Bicyclists in single vehicle collisions often have some degree of comparative fault. Safely take photographs of any dangerous condition as soon as possible after the collision to preserve this evidence.

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